The activity of Satan in the past 100-120 years has increased
exponentially. Without question the 20th Century was a century of unmitigated evil.
To name but a few examples includes the development of chemical warfare in World War I,
the rise of communism and fascism, the targeting of civilians in fire bombings, blanket bombings,
and nuclear bombings, and the holocaust of Nazis Germany during World War II, Stalin’s U.S.S.R.,
Mao’s China, the killing fields of Cambodia, and the various genocides in Africa. More people died
for the faith in the 20th Century that all the martyrs in the past 2000 years.

The late 19th and the 20th Century also brought the most devastating and dangerous cultural changes in the form of modernism/post-modernism ("the relativistic position that there is no absolute truth or objective reality") and ultimately Progressivism (a kind
of "evolutionary" Marxism). These notions are that "what we experience as reality is a social construct (solely constructed by individual human minds), that it consists only of our interpretations of what the world means to us individually, and that individual responses to a given cultural product comprise the whole reality of that product." This is in essence a form of self-worship and determination that intertwines its evil philosophies into politics, general culture, and even the Church

By 1994 the Judeo-Christian worldview that had predominated
Western Culture since AD 314 was replaced by a Post-Modern worldview
hostile to Christianity and to all God’s children.

Today, the evil one has brought us a step further into full Progressivism.

Bottomline: We are at war!

As with all wars there are casualties. The casualties may
involve otherwise orthodox Christians living without the excellence
and fullness of the Catholic worldview that our Lord intends us to live,
or those casualties may involve seduction into heterodoxy or heresy.
Ultimately, those casualties may lead to various levels
of bondage, harassment, oppression, obsession, and even possession.

The “Culture Wars”, spawned by the Post-Modern
Worldview and fueled and brought to its fullness by Progressivism,
leaves all of us a casualty. We are all born into and live in
this worldview that is fundamentally hostile to the Christian worldview.
We may often find ourselves, therefore, thinking in ways that are
inconsistent with the Christian worldview. This is the subtlety of
spiritual warfare — if the evil one cannot get us to abandon
the faith, or to rebel into heterodoxy or heresy, he will try to rob
us of the victory in Christ that we ought to experience. Healing from
these sort of casualties is found in obedience to the Church and
“...fanning into flame the gift that is within you.”
By appropriating the victory of Christ and the life of the Spirit we
may experience the fullness and excellence of all that Christ wants us
to be.

Spiritual Warfare may also lead to more serious casualty
ranging from bondage, harassment by demons, to serious demonization
(“possession”). The more serious levels of demonization
may be beyond a person healing themselves through prayer and devotion.
Deliverance Counselors and healers may help these people.

Those casualties who are affected at the highest and most
severe levels of demonization (commonly, but misleadingly, called
“possession”) will need the formal Rite of Exorcism
(Solemn Exorcism). Solemn Exorcism can only be performed by a Catholic priest
appointed by a Catholic bishop and even then only with the Bishop’s expressed
permission.

The numbers of Solemn Exorcisms, although still relatively
rare, have increased in recent decades. What is alarming, however, is
that lessor forms of demonization that do not qualify for a Solemn
Exorcism, have increased markedly. There are perhaps 10,000’s, maybe
100,000’s, of people suffering from levels of demonization that are
severe enough to require the help of Deliverance Counselors, but not
severe enough to qualify for a Solemn Exorcism.

Unfortunately, there is no credible formal training for
Deliverance Counselors. Seminaries do not deal with this issue. Thus,
training becomes an exercise in self-study and hopefully finding a
mentor with experience in this area, and the instructions in the Rite
of Exorcism itself. There are some training efforts among charismatic
Catholics, but the approach of these efforts are questionable, often
misguided, and are generally not comprehensive.

In 1993, however, the International Association of
Exorcists was formed. Membership is restricted and exclusive. A
priest must have permission of his bishop to join. This Catholic association
may begin to provide very needed training, support, and advice to those
priests who are officially appointed as Exorcists. But this still does
not meet the need for the average priest and the laity who deal with
levels of demonization that do not qualify for a solemn exorcism.

Unlike a Solemn Exorcism, that has a specific rubric promulgated
officially by the Church by which priest follows in doing an exorcism, in
Deliverance Counselling there is no such formal guidance by which all
Counselors may follow. This has caused much confusion and widely
differing approaches among those called into Deliverance Counselling.

Without a standardization of methodology and a training that
painstakingly brings a person through academic, clinical, spiritual
instruction, and direction in personal spiritual formation and growth,
abuses and uneven results are bound to be the norm.

Perhaps because of this lack of proper training and
understanding among Deliverance and Healing apostolates the Church has
observed many abuses and even harm not only to the clients of these
groups but to the counselors themselves.

The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith thus
issued two instructions on this matter. The first was in 1985 dealing
specifically with deliverance work:
Inde Ab Aliquot Annis.
The second pertinent document deals with prayers for healing was issued in 2000:
Instruction on Prayers for Healing

It is critically important for those in the Deliverance or
Healing apostolates to read these binding instructions from the
Vatican.

The lack of training in seminaries, the lack of priests or
laity knowledgeable and experienced in doing Deliverance Counselling,
has caused a great gap of people not receiving the help they need. Our
Community has been called by God, we believe, to fill this gap and
provide not only counselling with demonized people, and investigations
of “hauntings,” but also to provide a specific and
comprehensive course of instruction to train eligible people to be
Deliverance Counselors.

This section of the SPCDC website will provide information
about what it means to be a Deliverance Counselor, eligibility
requirements for admittance to our training, an outline of the training
curricula, and an application for those interested in becoming students
in our training program.